The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1887-04-06
PRACTICAL JOKING.


Tho Gross Way in Which the Alleged
Humor of Englishmen Manifests Itself.
The worst of English humor is that
it is so apt to take practical form.
Practical joking is generally con-
sidered, except, indeed, by the I'M
fortunate victim, the cream of English
fun, and is tolerated in England to an
extent that seems to a foreigner in
credible. The abominable form of
practical joking is undoubtedly the
hoax, and during the last few years
hoaxing seems to have been on the in
! crease. 1t was only short while ago
that lively gentleman in one of the
London suburbs was fined five pounds
for sending telegram to a
friends wife to say that that
friend had seriously injured himself by
burns and had gone to the hospital.
Never was penalty better deserved;
and the culprits ardor for practical
joking will probably have cooled con-
siderably by this time A still more
senseless and cruel hoax was perpe-
trate short time before, when man
was informed that Newcastle gentle
man whose life he had once saved had
left him an estate worth thousand
year. Needless to state, the message
was untrue. A still grosser case was
the Liverpool hoax of last winter, when
IN advertisement was inserted in the
papers for q large number of working
men to help in preparing the Exhibit
ton grounds, all candidates for en-
ployment to bring spades and pickaxes.
There were II great number of men out
of work in the city: crowds of them
streamed out to the exhibition site,
many of them having purchased, out of
the remnants of their savings, the re-
quired tools; and when, after weary
walk, they reached the ground, they
found the whole affair was a hoax.
Can senselessness and barbarity in u
so-called practical joke 90 much far
ther than this.
OF q more harmless kind was the
Downing street hoax of last July, when
several furniture vans from different
firms arrived-so it was said-at Mr..
Gladstone's official residence shortly
after his resignation, to remove cold
collars, hats, coats, and similar eff
fects;' such, any rate, was the object
named on the postcards they had re-
ceived.
1t is tolerably well known that for an
undergraduate to be abroad in the
evening without cap and gown is an
offense against the laws of his uni
versity, and if detected in his trans
erosion by the proctors, the offending
Cantab or Oxonian is invited to call on
the proctor next morning to make a
modest contribution to the university
finances. In case he does not respond
to the invitation with sufficient alacri-
ty, form is filled in requesting him to
attend without delay. In 1884, at Ok
ford some evil-disposed person pur-
Joined number of these forms, filed
them in, and sent them to some sixty
or seventy undergraduates; and the
scene on the proctor's staircase next
may be better imagined than
described.
But perhaps the most notable hoax
of recent years occurred about two
years back. An American cotton plant
er in the Southern States had, it was
reported, after years of fruitless at
tempts, succeeded in crossing the cot
ton plant and the okra, a species of
hemp. The result had exceeded all ex-
pectations. The new plant bore only
'ne blossom, of large size, of fra
GRANGE similar to the magnolia-pink
1t first and gradually fading to white.
When this fell off, its seed-vessel
'welled and swelled; till at last,
when ripe. it burst and re-
'ealed large mass of cotton at
east two pounds in weight, quite
rec from the troublesome seeds, which
which were at the bottom of the pod.
The account was copied from one paper
nto another; showers of letters came
'eseeching the lucky planter for few
eeds, and it was confidently predicted
hat the cotton industry would be revo-
ntionized. The Standard and other 7,
English newspapers devoted leading
rticle to the new discovery. And
fter all this discussion, it turned out
hat the whole affair was the invention
some waggish Southern editor at a
'ss for subject in the holiday season.
= Chambers Journal.
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